


Cold Blooded

by aokisecchi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adoptive brother shiro, M/M, New Boyfriends, Pidge also loves reptiles, explains his prosthetic arm, keith likes his pets more than he likes most people, reptile lover keith, she/her pronouns for pidge, shiro doesn’t really like snakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-26 13:38:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aokisecchi/pseuds/aokisecchi
Summary: Keith finally decides to bring Lance home. Lance doesn’t expect to find himself in an exotic zoo.





	Cold Blooded

It was 2am, and Keith’s dark room suddenly brightened. A text from his older brother lit up the screen of his cracked Iphone 5. He and Lance had been dating for 8 months now, but Keith was scared to bring him home because of some cold-blooded friends he had.

From Shiro:  
All of your animals are fed. I even filled in the little book you have for their food logs. You’re welcome.

To Shiro:  
Thanks. I’m just scared because Lance is coming home and I’m worried that he won’t like them.

From Shiro:  
If he really loves you, he’ll learn to love all your little friends too. Even if they’re not so little.

Keith owns 16 pets. His biggest one is not very big, just a little 5 foot long ball python. She’s 15 years old, and a beautiful creature. Shiro and Keith had gone to the reptile expo back when they lived in Texas and bought her for a whopping 600 dollars. (She was a coral glow banana morph)

Lance didn’t hate animals- in fact it was quite the opposite. However, the Cuban was more used to mammals and fish, not scaly, cold-blooded cuties. The plan was to pick up Lance and Pidge at lunch, go out and eat, then drive to Keith and Shiro’s parents’ home.Matt would be there too.

Keith fell asleep, thinking about every single scenario that could take place tomorrow when Lance sees his animals. 

—

The morning sun shone through the blinds of Keith’s room. It was 9am, pretty much on time. Keith took a shower, threw on his black shirt and jeans (what an emo) and grabbed his keys to make his way to Pidge’s house.

Pidge lived in a college dorm. She was 17 and freshly started at college. She was allowed to keep a small leopard gecko, which she named “Rover.” Keith had helped her pick out all the supplies and even drove her to a local breeder to pick out Rover.

Next stop: Lance’s house. He lived in a dorm with Hunk, his old roomate and best friend. Hunk had two bunnies, who unfortunately passed away due to some parasite. 

“Hey Keithy-babe!” Lance slammed the car door shut. 

“Hello to you too,” Pidge snarked.

“Hey Pidgey- didn’t see you there in the backseat. I’m so excited, you honestly have no idea. Sixteen pets? That’s freakin’ awesome dude.” Lance exclaimed.

“Yeah? I mean- yeah. They can be a handful sometimes. But i love them all to death.” Keith replied.

—

When they arrived, Matt and Shiro were already there, eating lunch. The three others had grabbed sandwiches from Subway though.

“Can I see them?” Lance asked.

Keith grabbed his keys and inserted a small, silver key into one of the rooms. 

“This is my reptile room!”

Lance and Pidge both stared in awe as they looked at the terrariums and rack systems flooding with animals and food.

“Come! Let me show you Red. She’s my oldest.” Keith opens a long tank, revealing a big, red-brown bearded dragon. “She’s really friendly. Don’t mind he spiky bits. She’s pretty soft.” Keith placed Red into the Cuban’s trembling hands as he moved over to the next tank. 

“This is Skippy. He’s my crested gecko. Hatched him myself my Shiro, that idiot, put Ducky and Lilu together.” There were two other long tanks which Lance and Pidge both assumed to be Ducky and Lilu’s tanks.

“Skippy’s really skittish, so if you want to touch a crested gecko, touch Ducky. He’s the calmest of the three.” He gently took Red out of Lance’s hands and put him back in his cage.

“Here are my ball pythons. They live in rack systems! I have 5 of them.”

“Here’s Zelda. She’s my biggest. She’s a coral glow ball python. Cost me 600 bucks.” He placed the balled up snake into Pidge’s hands.

“Here’s Link, Zelda’s “mate.” He’s just a butter ball python. They made 3 surviving babies, they’re super pretty.” He opened all the drawers to reveal 3 baby snakes and one larger one.

Here’s my hognose. His name is Fanta. He’s pretty tiny. Got him a month ago when I went to the expo to get supplies.” He took out a red eyed, orangey snake that wrapped around his hand. Keith then handed the little snake to Lance.

“H-hey, he has a little snout! Can I boop it?” Lance asked.

“They are venomous, not a big deal, but if you’re allergic then it might be a problem.” Pidge responded. “I actually want a hognose, but taking care of Rover is hard enough.”

“This is Draco and Lilian. They’re crocodile skinks. Can’t handle them though, they hate it.” Keith reached down and opened another tank. 

“I have 4 leopard geckos! 3 of my females live in this 50 gallon tank. They love eachother. One lives in another 10 gallon, he’s in Shiro’s room. Shiro calls him ‘Black.’” Keith revealed a yellow/white/orange gecko, along with two standard looking ones.

“I also have a pacman frog, which is with Shiro’s girlfriend right now. My last pet is my blue tounged skink. She passed away a week ago.” 

“I’m sorry.” Lance sympathetically offers.

“I can’t bring myself to get another one. She was one of my favorites, along with Red. Her name was Saph.” Keith sniffled.

“I really like all your pets. They’re super cute. I think I want one? Can you maybe help me find a pet?” Lance asked.

Pidge had left at this point, something about Matt and Shiro getting too touchy. She didn’t want them to bang while they went on a nice reptile tour at someone else’s house.

“Yeah? Yeah!! I’d totally help you find one. That would be awesome!” Keith brightened up.

“I want a pet that can cuddle and chill, y’know, while I stay on the couch. And I don’t want to feed it bugs every day because crickets drive me nuts and they STINK.” Lance scrunched up his face. 

“Maybe get a ball python? Mine only eats once a week.”

“No rats, no mice. My heart can’t take it.”

“How about a blue tounge skink? They eat a bunch of stuff, like cat food and veggies.” Keith said.

“That’s perfect!” Lance said. “Let’s go?”

“Yeah.”

-

Figuratively speaking, Lance knew he should have done some research, but Keith has been handling reptiles since he was little. He had Keith by his side, so he didn’t worry about what would go wrong.

First stop, Petco. They picked out a large terrarium, hides, heat lamps, bla bla bla. It was mostly Keith shoving things into the cart. The total was maybe 350? Lance doesn’t remember.

Next stop, somewhere far away. They rode Keith’s bike to a neighborhood about an hour away. 

“Hey Mr. Brown!” Keith smiled.

“This is where Keith got his bluey. Is Saph okay?” The nice old man asked.

“Uh, she passed away a week ago.” Keith grimaced.

“Here to get a new one, eh? We got a nice clutch of babies, some juvies too. Come on in!”

There were tubs and racks of baby blue tounged skinks, but the one that stuck out to Lance the most was one with a really, really blue tounge. 

“We were going to hold that one back for future breeding, but I’ll give it to ya since I know you can take care of it.”

“We rode here on my bike, can you ship it down to Shiro’s house tonight?” 

“Sure thing. Be sure to have the cage set up by then though.”

“How much will she be?” Lance inquired.

“Free. I still remember when Keith was maybe 12 and he came in was big eyes looking for a bluey. I can’t believe he’s 24 now. Saph was a pretty one. Glad Keith took care of her good.” The old man smiled. “Take good care of this little one.”

They got home, set up the cage, and fell onto the bed with a content sigh. They squirmed into their cuddle position and tried to fall asleep.

“Lance?”

“Hm?”

“Your blue tounge skink is gorgeous.” Keith yawned out.

“Like you,” Lance snarked.

“No, but seriously. What are you going to name her?”

“You know what, I know exactly what I’m going to name her.”

“Good night Lance.”

Lance heard the soft snore of Keith sleeping.

“Her name is Blue.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have an unhealthy obsession with reptiles. Lance (my crested gecko) is actually the love of my life.


End file.
